ORANGE will be the cornerstone of a case study next month, conducted by Macquarie University’s Professional and Community Engagement (PACE) program, focusing on determining the viability of facilitating larger scale PACE activities in regional areas.
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PACE is a signature program of Macquarie University which provides undergraduate students with opportunities to partake in “work-integrated learning” to develop valuable career skills in their chosen field while working with partner organisations.
With several links to Orange already, PACE’s team will conduct a number of focus groups next month in a bid to gauge the feasibility of establishing partnerships using a “whole of region” approach, while also identifying untapped areas of opportunity the mutually beneficial program could fulfil.
PACE chief investigator Catherine Ennis explained the research project is born out of a need to provide students more avenues to complete the program’s units.
“As of 2015 all newly enrolled students will complete a PACE unit which include internships and work-integrated learning projects,” she said.
“We’ve chosen Orange because we already have a number of strong partnerships there and had a base to build on.
“(Next month’s research is) a scoping project that involves consulting with [stakeholders] and students to ask them what the think about the (whole region) approach.
“We want to be mindful of others and collaborate where possible to ensure that we complement or add value, or identify gaps where PACE can fulfil.
“We have research approval for five years so we see this specific project as a starting point for many other iterations that could develop from this project.”
The research sessions are scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, December 7 and 8 at Orange Regional Galley, and local stakeholders can register at http://doodle.com/poll/7ti2s44ggxp4umx3,or contact PACE directly on pace.science@mq.edu.au